Pro Stock Adapts Quicker Than Expected To Costly Changes

PROSTOCKLEAD
For anyone with $100,000 burning a hole in his or her pocket, here are a few tempting ideas:

  • An Aston Martin Vantage
  • An eight-day guided, private-car tour through Namibia with its shifting sand dunes of Sossusvlei; German colonial architecture in Windhoek; the ancient canyons of Moon Valley near Swakopmund; and the Okonjima Nature Reserve with lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, and zebras
  • One mixed cluster diamond necklace from Tiffany’s
  • A two-bedroom, 1,080-square-foot condo in Mesa, Arizona; a one-bedroom bungalow in Los Angeles; a three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,800-square-foot colonial in Hartford, Connecticut; or a modest ranch in Dallas, broom closet in Manhattan, or a 589-square-foot studio in Honolulu.
  • Two years of tuition at Harvard University

MG5_6898For an NHRA Pro Stock racer, $100,000 is just the buy-in for the 2016 season. That’s in addition to the regular expenses of running a Pro Stock program.

That’s approximately what it costs during the off-season to convert each car to the mandated new tech specifications. The NHRA ordered shortened wheelie bars, removal of the distinguishing hood scoops, use of an NHRA-controlled 10,500 rpm rev limiter, and a switch from carburetors to the multi-puzzle-piece electronic fuel injection, or EFI, system.

Not even a well-funded team wants to have to add a six-figure expense to the budget, and the smaller-endowed teams felt the financial pinch even more. It’s ironic, for one of the purposes, NHRA said, was for teams to save money.

“Initially it hasn’t,” owner-driver Chris McGaha said matter-of-factly rather than resentfully. He said the prices that mandated vendor Holley is charging “… is very fair. There’s no doubt about it. What they’re selling it for is a good value.”

Even in the short run, 16 racers somehow made the changes and hauled their operations to Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, California for the season-opening Circle K Winternationals. Some stopped to test at Chandler, Arizona. McGaha predicted more cars are expected to compete in March the first East Coast race, the Gatornationals at Gainesville, Florida.

MG5_6915

The NHRA’s newly-mandated changed to the Pro Stock category centers around a new Holley-suppled EFI throttle body and ECU. This move, coupled with the removal of the traditional hood scoops, also required engine builders to completely re-think their intake manifold designs.

The playing field was level in one aspect: every team had to spend the money to make the switch.

McGaha said, “It costs you right up front, $15 grand. You want to have two or three sets of injectors. You want to have two or three sets of coils, two or three computers.”

The credit card’s definitely on the high end of the rev limiter. We’ve hit it a few times. – Aaron Strong

Vincent Nobile, one of four Elite Motorsports drivers, said $100,000 sounds about right, but qualified that, “I can’t tell you exactly, because I’m not writing the checks. I don’t even want to know what it is.”

Neither does class newcomer Aaron Strong, but he owns his small-budget operation and he has to know.

“I haven’t kept track of what it is. It’d probably scare me. It’s up there. The credit card’s definitely on the high end of the rev limiter. We’ve hit it a few times,” he said.

Strong had a long and costly list of parts and services that went along with compliance.

“It has been a huge cost. You have a cost with the chassis builder. You have a cost with the engine builder. You have a cost of buying the products you need. We have two motors, so you need to buy two of everything. Then for the dyno, you need fuel pumps and wire harnesses for the dyno – and all those extra dyno pulls made this winter that would not have normally been made, to try to figure out fuel injection. We wore out a motor just on the dyno. We’re a small team, and we made 70 dyno pulls,” Strong said.

MG5_7035

Pro Stock legend Warren Johnson, now semi-retired from driving, has been keeping his hands in the category by assisting Matt Hartford’s team with its transition to EFI.

For perspective, better-off teams made somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 dyno pulls, and the KB/Summit Racing team said it made closer to 400 in the preseason.

Acknowledging that the sport always is going to have the contrasting capabilities between bigger and smaller teams, Strong said, “We’ve just got to try to be smart with what we have and not hurt stuff.”

But he did. He hurt stuff even before the season began, not including the dyno-exhausted engine.

“We hurt both of our motors in Phoenix [in pre-season testing]. And, as of Wednesday [two days before the opening day of the season], we were getting ready to pack up and go home. Richard Freeman from Elite Motorsports came over and gave us a motor. He even helped us put it in at Phoenix. We were going down the track at 5:30 p.m. at Phoenix Wednesday of this week with his motor,” Strong said. “Without his help, we wouldn’t be here [at Pomona]. He wanted to see a full field, and we wanted to be here. It’s huge what they did for us.”

Had Strong not gone to Pomona, the 16-car field would have been flying in a missing-man formation. Strong qualified 12th but fouled out in the first round.

Part-time racer Aaron Strong benefited from a friendship with Richard Freeman of Elite Motorsports, which allowed him to compete at Pomona with an Elite engine.

Part-time racer Aaron Strong benefited from a friendship with Richard Freeman of Elite Motorsports, which allowed him to compete at Pomona’s Winternationals with an Elite engine.

Pro Stock king Warren Johnson, who’s working with independent Matt Hartford, had an easy explanation how 16 teams still can afford to participate.

“Racing is a disease,” he said. “It’s their hunting, fishing, gardening, and bowling all wrapped up in something with four wheels. It’s the price of entertainment.”

MG5_7910

However, Johnson has found the cure.

“I made my money racing. I’m not going to spend it on racing,” the 97-time NHRA winner and six-time champion said.

Racing is a disease. It’s their hunting, fishing, gardening, and bowling all wrapped up in something with four wheels. It’s the price of entertainment. – Warren Johnson

And Strong’s participation has its limits. He had more than capable help with Pro Stock standout Greg Stanfield as his consultant/crew chief and Stanfield’s son, former Pro Stock racer Aaron, as his clutch specialist. But he didn’t have enough resources to attend the second race, the Carquest Nationals, back at Chandler’s Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. He can’t rely every race weekend on Freeman, he knows. So Race No. 2 of 24 had a field of just 15 (while Top Fuel and Funny Car barely had a full bracket, with 16 entrants each).

That means Strong is on the same plateau as many of his peers – to a degree. But he’s one of the last true privateers in the class (along with 2012 champion Allen Johnson and V Gaines, both of whom are financially comfortable and experienced in the sport, and Hartford). Joey Grose and Deric Kramer have an alliance with McGaha, Summit has its three racers, Elite has its four, and Shane Gray is affiliated with Alex Laughlin.

MG5_7008Both Johnson and Gaines – highly successful businessmen in Tennessee and Colorado, respectively – had their fair share of struggles at Pomona, proving money helped but didn’t guarantee an easy transition to the new systems. Kramer, Grose, Hartford, Laughlin, and Gaines joined Strong as opening-round finishers, and Johnson and Gray (the first to test the new setups) exited in the quarterfinals.

Gaines posted on a social media outlet: “Everything seemed to sour as we tried to manipulate the EFI … finally we got a better handle on it in the first round against Jason Line. Unfortunately, we had some starting line snafus. We’re looking forward to the future with this EFI stuff!”

Johnson’s Dodge broke even before his burnout in the second round. The culprit turned out to be a loose wire in the EFI harness.

“This weekend, we learned a lot of what not to do,” he said, “and that is a very big positive, especially with all this new stuff. We found some gremlins. I hope we found all of the gremlins. You can always take a positive out of a negative.”

The sanctioning body just never takes into account the ramifications of their decisions. – Warren Johnson

Hartford, in a sense, was racing at Pomona with one hand tied behind his back. Johnson said the team didn’t get the necessary parts until 11 days before the race began. That, he said, deprived the team of proper shop time, dyno-testing opportunities, and on-track testing in the preseason. And Johnson, a research-and-development leader with General Motors engines, impatiently twiddled his thumbs while waiting for parts to arrive.

Johnson said that’s because the supplier had a limited inventory when it came to throttle bodies and other components a racer would need to bring his car into compliance. He didn’t blame Holley, recognizing that it had to “make sure the people that had already pre-entered would have those parts.” It didn’t help that those teams ordered multiples of each item. He said the NHRA handed down the rule so quickly that even Holley didn’t have time to react the ideal way.

MG5_6920

The KB/Summit Racing team of Greg Anderson and Jason Line, along with Bo Butner, have dominated the first two events of the season in Pomona and Phoenix, qualifying No. 1 and winning both races.

“The sanctioning body just never takes into account the ramifications of their decisions,” he said.

Gray, who lost in round two, said, “The good news is we are just drag racing. We’re not performing open-heart surgery out here. I think the new look of the cars and the EFI is going to be very popular with the fans and with the bigwigs in Detroit, as well. This is what we’ve got to race with, so it’s on the race teams to make it happen.”

They did, as best they could.

McGaha, known for speaking his mind, said, “It’s really not that bad, and I’m not sugar-coating it at all.”

In the end, Anderson said, “I think as a group, we all are fairly satisfied with the way the cars are running. I was expecting fully for people to have more issues than we did. I think we all overachieved.”

About the author

Susan Wade

Celebrating her 45th year in sports journalism, Susan Wade has emerged as one of the leading drag-racing writers with 20 seasons at the racetrack. She was the first non-NASCAR recipient of the prestigious Russ Catlin Award and has covered the sport for the Chicago Tribune, Newark Star-Ledger, St. Petersburg Times, and Seattle Times. Growing up in Indianapolis, motorsports is part of her DNA. She contributes to Power Automedia as a freelancer writer.
Read My Articles

Drag Racing in your Inbox.

Build your own custom newsletter with the content you love from Dragzine, directly to your inbox, absolutely FREE!

Free WordPress Themes
Dragzine NEWSLETTER - SIGN UP FREE!

We will safeguard your e-mail and only send content you request.

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

We'll send you the most interesting Dragzine articles, news, car features, and videos every week.

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

Dragzine NEWSLETTER - SIGN UP FREE!

We will safeguard your e-mail and only send content you request.

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

Thank you for your subscription.

Subscribe to more FREE Online Magazines!

We think you might like...


Street Muscle Magazine
Hot Rods & Muscle Cars
Diesel Army
Diesel Army
Engine Labs
Engine Tech

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

Thank you for your subscription.

Subscribe to more FREE Online Magazines!

We think you might like...

  • Streetmuscle Hot Rods & Muscle Cars
  • Diesel Army Diesel Army
  • Engine Labs Engine Tech

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

Dragzine

Thank you for your subscription.

Thank you for your subscription.

Dragzine - Drag Racing Magazine

Thank you for your subscription.

Thank you for your subscription.

Loading